ThePortForum.com

• Te inuocamus, Liber Pater, ut nobis adsis qui id quod nunc bibemus dum profertur omnem ad gradum curauisti. te enim praesente uuae clarissimae leuissimis manibus carptae, te praesente pressae in uinum feruerunt. tu quoque adsis, o Siluane, qui durissimum corticem dedisti cuius puro in amplexu, tot per annos nullo calore, nullo frigore conturbatum dormiret. adeste igitur, di immortales, et concedite ut his uinis hodie ita ut uolebant auctores fruamur. nunc est bibendum.
  
  Thee we invoke, Liber Pater: be present now, as you were at every step when what we are about to drink was made. For under your care the finest grapes were picked by gentle hands; under your care they were trodden and turned to wine. Be present too, Silvanus, for you gave of the long-lasting cork, in whose clean embrace the wine has slept for many years, disturbed by no excess of heat or cold. Come, Immortal Gods, and grant that we may enjoy these wines as their makers intended. Now is the time to drink!

• Mostly, where a ‘u’ is followed by a vowel the ‘u’ is pronounced like an English w. Hence:
  • ‘uuae’ as u-wae;
  • ‘inuocamus’ as inwocamus;
  • ‘curauisti’ as curawisti;
  • ‘uinum’ as winum;
  • ‘Siluane’ as Silwane;
  • ‘qui’ as qwi;
• ‘cuius’ as coo-yus;
• ‘fruamur’ as froo-amur;
• ‘feruerunt’ as fair WEAR unt;
• ‘concedite’ as conk Eh deeti;
• In the following paragraph long vowels are shown in capitals (with ‘I’ being the same vowel sound as in eat):
  • Te inuocAmus, LIber Pater, ut nobis adsis qui id quod nunc bibEmus dum profertur omnem ad gradum curauisti. te enim praesente uuae clarissimae leuissimis manibus carptae, te praesente pressae in uinum feruErunt. tu quoque adsis, o SiluAne, qui durissimum corticem dedisti cuius purO in amplexU, tot per annOs nullO calore, nullO frigore conturbatum dormiret. adeste igitur, di immortales, et concEdite ut hIs uinIs hodie ita ut uolebant auctores fruAmur. nunc est bibendum.

JacobH wrote:Who is the Roman god of fortification?

Wikipedia wrote:Dionysus is equated with both Bacchus and Liber (also Liber Pater). Liber ("the free one") was a god of fertility, wine, and growth, married to Libera.

DRT wrote:can't find a god of fortification

JacobH wrote: the god of unmixed wines

James Grout wrote: Distillation was unknown in the ancient world (and would not be discovered until the early middle ages); wine, therefore, was the strongest drink of the Romans. Falernian was full-bodied (firmissima), with an alcohol content as much as fifteen or sixteen percent (at which point the yeast is killed by the alcohol it produces). A white wine, it was aged for ten to twenty years, until it was the color of amber (Pliny, XXXVII.12). The fabled vintage of 121 BC was a Falernian, the same year that Opimius was consul and had rebuilt the Temple of Concord. This is the wine that Petronius, in the Satyricon, has Trimalchio serve at his dinner banquet, and it is this wine that Pliny says still survived, although so concentrated as to be barely drinkable, to his own time 200 years later. He also speaks of Opimian Falernian being offered to Caligula that was 160 years old.

JacobH wrote:Blended ≠ Mixed; due to their sweetness, wine in Classical times were almost always drunk mixed with water ! kraters

James Grout wrote:Vintage wines could be kept for such lengths of time because they were stored in amphorae. These were large tapering two-handled clay jars, with a narrow neck that was sealed with cork plastered over with cement, and held approximately 26 liters or almost 7 gallons.

jdaw1 wrote:

James Grout wrote:Vintage wines could be kept for such lengths of time because they were stored in amphorae. These were large tapering two-handled clay jars, with a narrow neck that was sealed with cork plastered over with cement, and held approximately 26 liters or almost 7 gallons.

Hmmm. So if I can persuade the IVDP to allow bottles up to the 18L Melchior, the task still isn’t done.

AHB wrote:

jdaw1 wrote:

James Grout wrote:Vintage wines could be kept for such lengths of time because they were stored in amphorae. These were large tapering two-handled clay jars, with a narrow neck that was sealed with cork plastered over with cement, and held approximately 26 liters or almost 7 gallons.

Hmmm. So if I can persuade the IVDP to allow bottles up to the 18L Melchior, the task still isn’t done.

Perhaps you can convince the IVDP of a grandfathering precedent, demonstrating to them that in the First European Union which had its Parliament in Rome, it was permitted to ship wine in 27 litre clay amphorae and therefore you don't need special permission for this size container.

DRT wrote:

AHB wrote:

jdaw1 wrote:

James Grout wrote:Vintage wines could be kept for such lengths of time because they were stored in amphorae. These were large tapering two-handled clay jars, with a narrow neck that was sealed with cork plastered over with cement, and held approximately 26 liters or almost 7 gallons.

Hmmm. So if I can persuade the IVDP to allow bottles up to the 18L Melchior, the task still isn’t done.

Perhaps you can convince the IVDP of a grandfathering precedent, demonstrating to them that in the First European Union which had its Parliament in Rome, it was permitted to ship wine in 27 litre clay amphorae and therefore you don't need special permission for this size container.

Perhaps if we promised only to drink an Amphorae of vintage port at a Caligula-sytle orgy they would agree that we had not stepped outside established tradition?